3.+How+are+social+identity,+power,+and+academic+literacy+related?+(Camera)

 The discussion of how academic literacy affects social identity and power sparked a great deal of conversation amongst our class. The readings from Delpit and Dowdy’s //The Skin that we Speak// really opened my eyes and forced me to become aware of just how much language affects our social identity and power. It is extremely frustrating that language barriers are used to hold people down in our society. As terrible as racism can be when expressed through individuals, the more potent type of racism is the kind that is embedded in our public systems. It is the white people, in power, who essentially decide what the language of power in our country is. The fact that African American English is viewed to be an inferior language in our country is unfair. Who is to say one language is better than another is? The connotation of African American English is rooted in the racism towards blacks that has been embedded in this country, both at an individual level and in the public systems.  I do not know how we can overcome this battle since so many individuals in this country are in denial that this prejudice actually exists. Not even all African Americans support the usage of AAE in our country. In a speech given to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision Bill Cosby said, "Ladies and gentlemen, the lower economic people are not holding up their end in this deal," he declared. "These people are not parenting. They are buying things for kids -- $500 sneakers for what? And won't spend $200 for 'Hooked on Phonics.' . . . "They're standing on the corner and they can't speak English," he exclaimed. "I can't even talk the way these people talk: 'Why you ain't,' 'Where you is'. . . And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. . . . Everybody knows it's important to speak English except these knuckleheads. . . . You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth!" If we cannot change the prejudgments towards African American English that have been rooted in our language then it is imperative that we equip all of our students, with the tools to speak Standard English correctly.

In my Linguistic Dimensions study of Hispanic students from Queens, I learned “ Hispanic students are only one of the numerous cultural groups that face extraneous challenges in the classroom. Latino students are disproportionately represented among the students who are placed in the lower academic tracks (Ferrer, 2009). Commonly held beliefs for the Hispanic achievement gap include both cultural mismatch and systemic inequality. Cultural mismatch occurs when there is a mismatch between the home culture and school culture of a student. System inequality is the idea that schools have been designed to perpetuate class divergence that is present in society.”

In order to prevent systemic inequality from occurring in the classroom, a teacher is responsible for assisting students who experience a cultural mismatch. Teachers often discourage urban students from writing as they speak. Not all people are raised speaking Standard English from birth. It is unfair to penalize the orality that represents a student’s culture, customs, and heritage. Instead, we should celebrate diversity in the classroom. Rather than respect the language urban students bring to schools, many teachers choose to penalize it. It is not uncommon for a child to transfer the grammar patterns from their home language to the classroom. Languages all should be linguistically equal because they are each arbitrary. Students should not repress the language they have grown up speaking, instead they should celebrate their ethnicity. Hispanic students who feel valued in the classroom will be less likely to succumb to peer pressure and the lure-of-Street-life (Ferrer, 2009). Sadly, many Hispanic students underachieve because they equate school success with being required to “act white”. Students who relate academic success with acting white are the most likely to succumb to the lure of the street life that causes many Hispanic students to reject both school and a formal education (Ferrer, 2009).

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